Commission to determine legality of Karachi operation, says SHC

KARACHI - The Sindh High Court has ordered the formation of a Commission in order to determine the legality of the Karachi operation.The court issued the order during the hearing of a petition filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) pertaining to extra-judicial killings of 12 of its party workers allegedly by the law-enforcement agencies.During the hearing, a Medico-Legal Officer (MLO) submitted a report before the bench which stated that MQM workers were tortured before being killed.Subsequently, the court ordered that a commission be constituted in order to determine the legality of the Karachi operation.It also ordered for the inclusion of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Director General Rangers Maj Gen Rizwan Akhter in that commission.Activists and supporters of the MQM hold regular protests against what they call the enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of its party workers. They have claimed that personnel of law-enforcement agencies in plain clothes pick up MQM workers and subject them to brutal torture. They have also alleged that in some cases the perpetrators killed their workers and dumped their bodies on the outskirts of the City.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 12-Jun-2014 here.